UNION  LEAGUE  CLUB 


OF 


NEAV   YORK 


REPORT  OF  THE  SPECIAL  COMMITTEE 


ON 


EMIGRATION. 


PRESENTED   AT   THE    MONTHLY  MEETING,  HELD 

MAY    12th,   1864.       . 


CLUB-HOUSE,    UNION    SQUARE, 

No.  26  East  SeTenteenth  Street, 

NEW    YORK. 

18G4. 


2.2.5.1 


o.. 

J 

'PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    CLUB   IN   REFER- 

P  ENCE  TO  EMIGRATION. 

0^  • 


At  a  regular  montlily  meeting  of  the  Union  League  Club,  of  New 
York,  held  at  the  Club-House  on  Thursday,  the  14th  day  of  April, 
1864,  the  President  in  the  Chair,  the  following  Preamble  and  Resolu- 
tion, offered  by  Mr.  George  Cabot  Ward,  were  unanimously  adopted : 

Wlierea^^  there  is  reason  to  believe  that  the  increasing  emigration 
from  Europe  to  the  United  States,  naturally  induced  by  the  law  of  sup- 
ply and  demand,  may  be  facilitated  and  rendered  more  beneficial  to 
all  parties  by  the  diffusion  of  correct  information,  and  by  the  estab- 
lishment of  agencies  through  which  the  various  classes  of  employers 
in  America  may  obtain  the  particular  operatives  they  require,  mth  a 
proper  guarantee  of  their  ability  and  moral  character ;  therefore, 

Resolved^  That  a  committee  of  seven  be  appointed  to  consider  care- 
•O  fully  this  subject  in  its  various  phases,  and  report  their  views  thereon 
-^^    to  this  club  at  the  next  general  meeting. 

The  Chair  appointed,  as  such  committee,  Messrs.  George  Cabot 
^  Ward,  John  Jay,  W.  H.  Osborn,  Horatio  Allen,  W.  E.  Dodge, 
:5~7  J.  G.  HoLBROOK,  and  Sherman  J.  Bacon. 


^ 


At  the  monthly  meeting  of  the  Club,  held  on  Thursday,  the  12th 
of  May,  1864,  Mr.  Jay,  on  behalf  of  the  Special  Committee  on  Emi- 
Q    gration,  presented  and  read  a  Report,  whereupon  Mr.  Bodge  offered 
^    the  following  resolution : 


P^ 


Resolved.,  That  the  Report  of  the  Committee  on  Emigration  be 
printed,  under  their  direction,  for  the  use  of  the  members,  and  that 
the  Committee  be  continued,  and  requested  to  advise  the  Club  of  any 
further  suggestions  on  the  subject  which  they  may  deem  important. 

Upon  motion,  the  resolution  was  adopted,  and  the  Committee 
was  directed  to  print  2,500  copies  of  said  report. 


f  23734 


REPORT  OF  THE  COMMITTEE. 


The  Special  Coininittee  to  whom  was  referred  a  Pre- 
amhle  and  Resolution  on  the  subject  of  Emigration,  beg 
leave  respectfully  to  report, 

That  they  have  given  the  subject  careful  reflection, 
and  have  advised  thereon  with  the  Secretary  of  State, 
with  Members  of  Congress,  and  with  practical  men  who 
have  been  largely  interested  in  promoting  emigration  for 
the  purposes  of  their  own  business,  and  for  the  sale  and 
settlement  of  Western  lands. 

The  subject  of  emigration,  which  from  the  birth  of  our 
Republic  has  always  been  one  of  interest  and  importance, 
has  become,  in  consequence  of  the  Rebellion,  a  National 
question  of  vast  magnitude,  and  has  engaged  the  serious 
attention  of  the  Government. 

ACTION    OF  THE   GOVERNMENT. 

The  President,  in  his  last  Annual  Message,  submitted 
to  Congress  the  expediency  of  establishing  a  system  for 
the  encouragement  of  emigration ;  referring  to  the  great 
deficiency  of  labour  in  every  field  of  industry,  especially 
in  agriculture  and  in  our  mmes ;    to  the  fact  that  tens  of 


6  REPORT  OF  THE  SPECIAL  CO}DfrTTEE 

thousands  of  persons,  destitute  of  means,  are  thronging  our 

Foreign  Consnhites,  anxious  to  emigrate  to  tlie  United 
States  if  essential  hut  very  eheap  assistanee  could  he 
afforded  them ;  and  remarking  tluit,  under  the  sharp  dis- 
cipline of  civil  war,  the  Nation  is  heglnning  a  new  life,  and 
that  this  noble  effort  demands  and  should  receive  the  sup- 
port of  the  Government. 

In  the  House,  tliis  part  of  the  President's  Message 
was  referred  to  a  Special  Committee,  who,  tln*ough  its 
Chairman,  the  lion.  G.  B.  Washburne,  has  made  a  Report, 
accompanied  by  a  suggestive  and  valuable  letter  from  the 
Secretary  of  State,  by  anotlier  from  Mr.  J.  M.  Edmonds, 
Commissioner  of  the  Land  Oftice,  and  bv  a  Bill  to  encour- 
age  emigration. 

In  the  Senate,  the  subject  of  establishing  a  Bureau  of 
Emigration,  and  the  enactment  of  suitable  laws  for  tlie 
encouragement  and  protection  of  emigrants,  has  been  care- 
fully considered  b}'  tl»e  Committee  on  Agriculture,  wlio, 
through  Mr.  Sherman,  of  Ohio,  made  an  elaborate  and 
very  interesting  Report,  also  accompanied  by  a  Bill  to 
Encoura<j:e  Emij^vation. 

The  thoroughness  of  the  examination  thus  given  to  tlie 
subject  in  the  State  De])artment,  and  in  both  branches  of 
Congress,  and  the  careful  collation  of  statistics  bearino- 
upon  the  rpiestion,  entitles  the  conclusion  reached  by  the 
Committees  to  great  respect. 


ON  EMIGRATION.  1 

INCREASE   OF   EMIGRATION   AND    INDUCEMENTS  THERETO. 

The  largest  emigration  in  any  one  year  to  the  United 
States  was  in  1854,  when  it  anionnted  to  427,000.  In 
1860  it  was  153,000.  In  1861  there  was  a  marked  de- 
cline. The  arrivals  for  1862  showed  an  advance  of  20  per 
cent.,  and  those  of  1863  were  within  an  hundred  of  those 
of  1860. 

The  arrivals  thus  far  in  1861  show  a  larger  increase, 
and  a  letter  from  Mr.  Consul  Dudley  at  Liverpool,  dated 
the  22d  of  April,  to  the  Secretary  of  State,  states  that  the 
emigration  to  the  United  States  from  that  port  is  unprece- 
dented, and  that  there  are  not  at  the  present  time  half 
ships  enough  to  carry  the  emigrants  waiting  for  a  passage ; 
that  lie  learned  from  two  houses  that  all  their  passages 
were  eno^a^'ed  to  the  1st  of  June ;  and  one  firm  stated  that 
they  could  send  to  the  States,  within  two  months,  50,000 
persons,  if  they  had  the  ships  to  carry  them. 

This  anxiety  on  the  part  of  English  subjects  to  link 
their  destiny  with  that  of  our  Republic,  is  a  significant 
response  to  the  loud-mouthed  assurances  of  British  orators 
and  organs  of  slavery  and  secession,  that  ''  the  bubble  of 
democracy  has  burst,"  and  that  our  citizens  are  being 
ground  to  the  dust  by  the  iron  heel  of  a  military  despotism. 

Similar  letters,  as  your  Committee  were  advised  by  the 
Secretary  of  State,  are  constantly  being  received  from  the 
continental  consulates. 


8  REPORT  OF  THE  SPECIAL  COMMITTEE 

Mr.  Wtibliburnc'ti  Report,  rclurriiig  to  the  vacuum  cre- 
ated in  our  labour  market  by  the  war,  estimates  the  number 
of  Labouring  men  wlio  liave  left  their  employments  and 
gone  into  the  field  in  the  defence  of  the  Kepublic,  at 
nearly  a  million  and  a  quarter;  and  to  these  nuist  be 
added,  in  estimating,  what  will  presently  l)e  the  wants  of 
the  whole  country,  some  six  or  eight  hundred  thousand  men 
put  into  the  field  on  the  part  of  tlie  Rebels  ;  so  that  the 
entire  loss  from  the  Rebellion  to  our  National  industry 
may  be  estimated  at  from  a  milliun  and  a  half  to  two  mil- 
lions of  men.  The  dearth  of  labour  thus  created  is  severely 
felt,  not  only  in  our  agriculture  and  our  thousands  of  man- 
ufactories, but  in  the  coal  and  iron  mines  of  Pennsylvania, 
the  coal  mines  of  Ohio,  Indiana  and  Illinois  ;  in  the  Lead 
mines  of  Galena,  and  the  Gold  and  Silver  Ji lines  of  C Cali- 
fornia, Nevada,  Idaho  and  Colorado;  while  the  demand 
for  labourers  on  our  Railroads  alone  would  al.)s<>rb,  ac- 
cordinij:  to  Mr.  AVashburne,  the  entire  emi-q-ation  of  18(>o. 

The  general  inducements  to  emigration,  such  as  the 
high  price  of  labour  and  the  low  price  of  food  compared 
with  other  countries,  our  land  policy,  which  gives  to  every 
naturalized  citizen  a  liomestead  of  100  acres,  the  political 
lights  which  we  confer  so  lavishly,  our  free  school  system, 
which  confers  educati(.>n  upon  all,  and  gives  dignity  and 
])ower  to  the  i)Oorest  citizen,  these  blessings  and  advantages, 
combined  with  the  2')restige  of  oui-  Republic,  so  iimnensely 
to  be  increased  when  this  Rebellion  .^hall   be  bup])ressed. 


/ 


ON  EMIGRATION  9 

its  cause  removed,  and  harmony  restored,  are  now  turning 
towards  our  shores  many  thousands  for  whom  no  ships  are 
ready,  and  render  it  unnecessary,  in  the  opinion  of  states- 
men at  "Washington,  to  devise  new  inducements  to  em- 
igration, when  the  throng  of  waiting  emigrants  exceeds 
so  largely  the  ability  to  bring  them. 

And  yet,  in  view  of  the  future  of  America,  its  capa- 
bilities for  supporting  a  population,  and  of  the  amount 
added  by  each  emigrant  to  the  wealth  of  the  nation,  tlie 
subject  is  one  deserving  of  the  most  careful  study. -^ 

*  The  preliminary  report  of  Mr.  Jos.  C.  G.  Kennedy  to  the  Census  of 
1860  contains  some  interesting  tables,  showing  the  statistics  of  our  foreign 
emigration  from  1820,  and  approximate  estimates  of  an  earlier  period.  The 
total  number  of  emigrants  to  American  ports  since  1820  is  about  five  mil- 
lions and  a  half.  Mr.  Kennedy  assumes  the  emigration  from  Great  Britain 
and  Ireland  to  the  United  States,  since  the  close  of  the  war  in  1814,  to  have 

been 3,500,000 

By  the  Custom-house  returns  the  emigration,  since  1820, 

from  Germany,  was 1,486,000 

From  France 208,000 

British  America 1 17,000 

Prussia . .        60,000 

Switzerland 37,000 

Norway  and  Sweden 30,000 

China 41,000 

West  Indies 40,000 

Holland 21,000 

Italy 11,000 

Spain   16,000 

<fec.  <fec.,  <fec. 

A  table  of  the  occupation  of  emigrants  since  1820  shows  that  the  occu- 
pations of  about  3,000,000,  out  of  a  total  of  5,450,000  emigrants,  was  not 
stated.     Of  tlio.se  whose  occupation  was  stated,  there  were 


r 

10  REPORT  OF  THE  .SPECIAL  COMMITTEE 

THE   AREA,    POPULATION,    AND    CAPABILITIES    OF   THE 

UNITED    STATES. 

The  lion.  Tlobert  J.  Walker,  in  a  recent  letter  upon 
American  Finances  and  Hesonrccs,  remarks  that,  '^  if  as  well 
cultivated  as  England,  our  country  could  more  than  feed 
and  clothe  the  whole  world  ;  that  if  as  densely  settled  as 
England,  our  population  would  be  more  than  1200  mil- 
lions, and  if  as  densely  settled  as  Massachusetts,  among 

the  least  fertile  of  our  States,  we  would  number  513  mil- 

1*        ^j 
ions. 

Our  area  exceeds  that  of  Europe,  and  we  have  greater 
extent  of  mines,  especially  of  coal,  iron,  gold,  silver  and 
quicksilver — our  coal  alone,  as  stated  by  Sir  "William 
Armstrong,  being  thirty-two  times  as  great  as  that  of  the 
United  Kingdom  ;  and  our  iron  will  l)car  a  similar  propor- 
tion. 

Labourers 872,000 

Mechanics 407,000 

Farmers 764,000 

^lerchants 231,000 

AVeavers  and  Spinners 11 ,000 

^larincrs 29,000 

Miners 39,000 

Servants 21 ,000 

Physicians 2,200 

Clergymen 1 ,420 

Lawyers 1,140 

Enij^ineers 825 

itc.,  «tc.,  tfcc. 

The   females  arc   less  than  the  males,  in  the  proportion  of  two  to  three, 

and  almost  precisely  one  half  of  the  emigrants  are  between  fifteen  and  thirty 

years  of  age. 


ON  EMIGRA  TION.  11 

Our  coast  and  shore  line,  according  to  Professor  Baclie, 
is,  in  all,  122,784  miles,  of  wliieli  one-half  is  navigable  by 
steam,  employing  an  interior  Steam  Tonnage  exceeding 
all  the  internal  Steam  Tonnage  of  the  rest  of  the  world. 
All  Europe  combined  can  never  have  such  facilities  for 
cheap  water  communication  as  belong  to  the  United 
States,  and  this,  which  is  a  mighty  element  in  estimating 
the  power  and  progress  of  a  nation,  shows  also,  accord- 
ing to  Professor  Bache,  why  so  small  a  portion  of  our 
land  recpiires  irrigation,  and  why  we  have  no  general  fail- 
ures of  crops,  and  so  few  partial  failures  of  any  crop." 

According  to  the  report  of  the  Commissioner  of  Public 
Lands  for  ISGO,  the  public  lands  embrace  an  area  of  two 
million  and  a  quarter  square  miles,  or  more  than  two- 
thirds  of  our  territorial  extent.  Of  the  part  surveyed,  a 
thousand  millions  of  acres,  or  1,600,000  square  miles, 
exceeding  half  the  area  of  the  whole  Union,  is  yet  undis- 
posed of,  and  this  area  of  our  public  domain  waiting  for 
settlement  is  "  thirty-two  times  as  large  as  England 
proper" — a  fact   wliich,    even  assuming  but  half  of  this 

*  Lieut.  Maurj^  remarked,  when  in  the  service  of  the  United  States, 
and  before  he  had  forfeited  his  integrity  by  his  treaeher}-  to  the  Flag: 
"  The  area  of  all  the  vallej^s  which  are  drained  bj'  the  rivers  of  Europe 
which  empt}^  into  the  Atlantic,  all  the  valleys  that  are  drained  bj'  the  rivers 
of  Asia  which  empt}^  into  the  Indian  Ocean,  and  of  all  the  vallej'S  that  are 
drained  by  the  rivers  of  Africa  and  Europe  which  empty  into  the  Mediter- 
ranean, docs  not  cover  an  extent  of  territory  as  great  as  that  included  in 
the  valleys  drained  by  the  American  rivers  alone  which  discharge  themselves 
into  one  central  sea" — the  Gulf  of  Mexico. 


12  UErORT  OF  THE  SPECIAL  COMMITTEE 

area  to  be  fit  for  culture,  it  may  not  be  amiss  to  remem« 
ber  wlicn  we  arc  reminded  of  the  fact  that  our  Na- 
tional debt  incurred  in  preserving  the  integrity  of  the  lie- 
public,  and  to  be  paid  for  by  the  generations  that  are  to 
inliabit  tliis  broad  land,  is  about  one  half  as  large  as  the 
debt  of  Enii^land.^ 

The  rate  at  whicli  our  population  has  increased  from 
1700  to  ISOO,  is  34.0,  nearly  35  per  cent.,  and  this  rate 
has  been  singularly  uniform,  never  varying,  in  a  single 
decade,  more  than  four  per  cent.  If  we  shall  continue 
to  increase  at  the  same  rate,  we  shall  attain  tlie  density  of 
population  which  exists  in  Europe,  in  the  year  1925,  sixty- 
one  years  from  to-day  ;  and  as  we  now  count  some  eighty- 
eight  years  since  our  ]^ational  birth  in  1770,  it  requires 
no  stretch  of  iinas^ination  to  look  forward  less  than  three- 
fourths  of  that  period.  If  our  ratio  continues  uniform, 
we  shall  number,  in  1925,  217  millions. 


*  The  Edinburgh  Review  for  Ajiril,  18G4,  in  an  article  on  "  British  North 
America,"  remarks : 

"Pcrliaps  we  shall  somewhat  surprise  our  readers  if  we  inform  tliem 
that  one  third  of  the  United  States  is  wholly  unfitted  for  occupation  by 
man." 

The  Rocky  Mountain  System,  as  stnted  hy  Prof  Ilenrj',  occupies  one 
third  of  the  entire  breadth  of  the  United  States,  and  is,  in  great  part,  imfit 
for  cultivation ;  but,  excluding  from  consideration  this  one  third  of  the 
totjil  area  of  the  United  States  (2,030,100  square  miles),  there  remains 
1,080, TVS  square  miles  fit  for  cultivation — which,  as  compared  with  the  total 
area  of  Great  Britain  (121,012  square  miles),  is  more  than  sixteen  to  one. 


ON  EMIGRATION.  13 

EMIGRATION   AS  AN   ECONOMICAL  QUESTION. 

The  question  of  emigration,  therefore,  in  reference  to 
the  future,  is  one  to  which  the  statesmen  and  political 
economists  of  our  country  can  hardly  attach  too  great  im- 
portance. Kor  is  the  question  that  looms  up  with  such 
immensity  in  the  next  century,  without  immediate  impor- 
tance in  its  bearing  on  our  national  revenue  of  to-day. 

The  Reports  by  the  Emigrant  Commissioners  of  the 
State  of  New  York,  of  the  average  amount  of  capital 
brought  into  the  country  by  European  emigrants,  in  addi- 
tion to  their  personal  effects,  assisted  to  account  for  the 
almost  startling  rapidity  in  the  increase  of  the  personal 
property  of  the  nation,  as  exhibited  by  successive  censuses. 

But  apart  from  the  gold  and  silver  brought  in  the 
pockets  of  the  emigrants,  especially  of  those  from  Germany 
and  Northern  Europe,  it  is  to  be  remembered  that  every 
man  contributes,  by  his  productive  labour,  to  the  National 
wealth,  and  that  each  individual,  under  our  present  sys- 
tem of  taxes,  contributes  directly  to  the  National  Treasury 
a  per  centage  on  a  part  of  the  food  that  he  eats,  the  tea, 
coffee  and  whisky  that  he  drinks,  the  tobacco  that  he  uses, 
and  the  clothes  that  he  wears. 

What  may  be  a  correct  estimate  of  these  two  items, 
the  pecuniary  value  of  the  labour  of  tlie  emigrant  to  tlie 
State,  and  his  average  contribution  in  direct  taxes,  is  a 
question  of  no  small  interest.  But  adopting  tlie  very  low 
estimate  that  each  man  on  an  average  adds  $100  a  year  to 


14  REPORT  OF  THE  SPECIAL  COMMITTEE 

the  National  wealth,  and  $10  a  year  to  tlie  National 
Treasury,  it  becomes  clear  that  the  National  Government, 
looking  npon  the  matter  simply  in  a  pecuniary  i)oint  of 
view,  could  make  no  better  nor  surer  investment,  than  in 
importing  emigrants  at  the  National  cost,  whose  labour 
would  directly  or  indirectly  restore  the  advance  fourfold. 

PROVISIONS    OF    MR.    WASHBURNE'S    BILL. 

Such  a  step,  however,  at  this  moment,  whatever  its 
advantages,  would  be  regarded  with  jealousy  by  the 
European  Powers,  and  might  lead  to  international  com- 
plications ;*   and  the   Bill   reported  by   Mr.    "Washbnrne, 

*  So  fiir  as  agricultural  emigrants  are  concerned,  and  in  reference  to  the 
food  question,  Great  Britain  and  France,  as  their  jwlitical  economists  have 
already  discovered,  are  even  more  interested  than  ourselves  in  the  growth 
of  our  rural  population.  The  fiict  can  no  longer  be  ignored  that,  in  Western 
Europe,  consumption  has  long  since  overtaken  and  is  now  fast  gaining  on 
j)roduction,  and  that  their  people  must  henceforth  look  to  the  United  States 
for  bread,  to  prevent  sucli  catastrophes  as  the  Irisli  famine  of  1847,  when 
half  a  million  are  said  to  have  died  of  starvation.  On  this  subject,  a  remark 
of  that  high  authoritj-,  Mr.  John  Stuart  Mill,  in  his  "  Political  Economy,"  is. 
eminently  suggestive : 

"  The  principal  fund  at  present  available  for  supplying  the  countrj' 
with  a  yearly  importation  of  food  is  that  portion  of  the  annual  savings 
of  America  which  has  hitherto  been  applied  to  increasing  the  manufacturing 
establishments  of  the  United  States,  and  which  may  now,  possibly,  be  di- 
verted from  that  purpose  to  growing  food  for  our  market.  This  limited 
source  of  supply,  unless  great  improvements  are  made  in  agriculture,  can- 
not keep  pace  with  the  growing  demands  of  so  rapidly  increasing  a  popula- 
tion as  that  of  Great  Britain  ;  and  if  our  jwpulation  and  capital  continue  to 
increase  with  their  present  rapidity,  the  only  mode  in  which  food  can  con- 
tinue to  be  supplied  cheaply  to  the  one  is  by  sending  the  other  abroad  to 
produce  it"— (London,  1848,  2d  edit.,  2d  vol.,  pp.  297,  8.) 

These  words,  ^\Titten  some  sixteen  years  ago,  apart  from  their  imme- 


ON  EMIGRA  TION.  1 5 

which  is  modeled  upon  one  prepared  by  the  State  Depart- 
ment, cautiously  avoids  all  effort  at  assisting  the  foreign 
emigrant  until  after  his  arrival  on  our  shores.  Its  features 
are  briefly  these : 

1.  It  appoints  a  Commissioner  of  Emigration  in  the 
State  Department,  to  serve  for  four  years,  with  a  salary 
of  $2,500,  and  three  clerks. 

2.  It  j^rovides  that  all  contracts  made  by  emigrants  to 
the  United  States,  in  foreign  countries,  in  conformity  to 
regulations  established  by  the  Commissioner,  pledging 
their  labour  for  a  term  not  exceeding  one  year,  to  repay 
the  expenses  of  the  emigration,  may  be  enforced  in  our 
courts,  and  shall  be  a  lien  on  any  land  to  be  thereafter 
acquired  by  tlie  emigrant. 

3.  It  authorizes  the  Secretary  of  State  to  reduce  the  ton- 
nage duty  on  Emigrant  ships. 

4.  It  provides  that  no  emigrant  shall  be  compulsively 
enrolled  for  military  service  during  the  existing  insurrec- 
tion. 

5.  That  there  shall  be  an  IT.  S.  Emigrant  Office  in 
New  York,  with  a  superintendent  and  two  clerks,  autlior- 

diate  bearing  upon  the  subject  of  emigration,  are  noteworthy,  as  exhibiting 
the  direct  and  deep  interest  which  the  masses  of  the  English  people  have, 
and  which  they  seem  instinctively  to  recognize,  in  the  preservation  of  our 
National  peace  and  prosperity — not  alone  as  regards  the  favouring  influence 
of  the  American  Republic  upon  British  Reform  and  their  own  political  and 
social  elevation,  but  in  reference  to  the  yet  more  important  question  of  their 
daily  food. 


16  EbrORT  OF  THE  SPECIAL  COMMITTEE 

izcd  to  make  contracts  for  the  transportation  of  emigrants, 
in  tlie  cheapest  and  most  expeditious  mode,  to  the  place 
of  their  destination,  and  to  protect  tliem  from  imposition. 
0.  That  the  Superintendent  may  make  advances,  for 
tlie  purposes  of  transportation,  upon  the  baggage  or  effects 
of  the  Emicjrant. 

7.  It  forbids  the  employment  of  any  i)erson,  under  the 
Act,  who  may  be  interested  in  land  or  transportation  com- 
panies. 

8.  It  recpiires  tlie  Commissioner  tu  submit  a  detailed 
Annual  Report  to  Congress,  and 

0.  It  appropriates  $25,000  for  carrying  the  provisions 
of  the  act  into  eifect. 

The  passage  of  this  Act  will  l)e  a  decided  advance  in 
the  action  of  Government  toucliing  Emigration,  and  will 
open  the  way  for  such  additional  provisions,  in  the  future, 
as  may  be  found  expedient  on  reviewing  the  details  of 
the  last  year's  emigration ;  and  in  view  of  the  reluctance 
entertained  by  the  Government,  pending  our  domestic 
embarrassments,  to  take  unnecessarily  any  step  which  may 
be  turned  into  an  occasion  of  foreign  (piarrel,  the  country 
will  hail  the  passage  of  the  Act  of  Mr.  Washburne  as 
affording  some  advantage  for  the  ])resent,  aiul  as  preparing 
the  way  for  more  efficient  action  in  the  future. 

The  provisions  of  the  act  (embodied  at  the  sugges- 
tion of  Mr.  Seward)  for  securing  the  re-payment  by  the 
emigrant  of  moneys  advanced  for  his  passage,  meet,  to  a 


ON  EMIGRATION.  17 

certain  extent,  the  point  specially  designated  in  the  Pre- 
amble to  the  Resolution  under  whicli  your  Committee 
were  appointed,  touching  the  possibility  of  arrangements 
by  which  the  various  classes  of  employers  in  America 
may  obtain  the  particular  labour  they  employ. 

How  far  the  contracts  proposed  by  the  act,  recogniz- 
able in  our  courts,  and  acting  as  a  lien  upon  lands,  may 
be  available  to  secure  advances,  is  yet  to  be  tested. 

CONCLUSION. 

But  your  Committee  are  satisfied,  from  a  prolonged 
and  careful  investigation  of  the  results  of  various  experi- 
ments in  the  importation  of  skilled  labourers  in  difterent 
branches  of  manufacture,  that  the  parties  here  making  the 
advances  have  found  insuperable  difiiculties,  arising  some- 
times from  one  cause  and  sometimes  from  another,  to  the 
satisfactory  fulfillment  of  the  engagements. 

The  idea  that  has  occasionally  prevailed  among  our 
skilled  labourers,  that  either  special  or  general  emigration 
is  likely  to  interfere  with  the  wages  or  interests  of  those 
already  here,  is  one  which,  however  natural  it  may  seem, 
is  contradicted  by  the  vastness  of  our  country  and  the 
magnitude  of  its  needs. 

The  Committee  rejoice  to  believe  that  the  leading 
statesmen  of  this  country  are  deeply  impressed  with  the 
vital  importance  of  protecting  and  stimulating  its  resources 
to  their  utmost  extent.     During  the  civil  wars  of  European 


18  REPORT  OF  THE  SPECIAL  COMMITTEE 

states,  those  men  who  liave  left  in  tlie  National  annals  the 
most  ineffaceable  records  were  those  who,  amid  the  com- 
motions of  war,  laid  the  broadest  foundations  for  a  revival 
of  national  prosperity,  by  comprehensive  measures  of  civil 
policy,  in  promoting  manufactures  and  developing  agricul- 
tural and  mineral  wealth. 

The  entire  subject  of  Emigration,  whether  in  its  rela- 
tion to  private  enterprise  or  public  works,  to  its  develop- 
ment of  our  resources,  the  payment  of  our  taxes,  the  in- 
crease of  our  wealth,  or  the  preservation  and  increase  of 
our  power,  is  one  that  will  henceforth  deserve  the  most 
thoughtful  study  at  the  hands  of  the  economists  and 
statesmen  of  our  Hepublic. 

The  Committee  do  not  deem  it  expedient  at  this  mo- 
ment to  propose,  for  the  adoption  of  the  Club,  any  special 
recommendations  going  beyond  the  legislative  provisions 
proposed  by  Congress.  The  establishment  of  an  Emigra- 
tion Bureau  in  this  city  will  probably  open  opportunities 
for  devising  improvements  in  the  system  ;  and  tlie  Gov- 
ernment will,  perhaps,  soon  feel  at  liberty  to  consult  more 
exclusively,  in  this  respect,  the  interests  and  ]>references  of 
the  American  people — always,  of  course,  with  a  profiMind 
regard  to  the  mutual  obligations  of  international  justice 
and  international  courtesy,  but  with  a  less  ready  yielding 
to  tlic  wishes  or  intimations  of  European  Powers.  Such 
a  deference  to  thuse  Powers,  at  the  i)resent  time,  is  hardly 
based  upon  any  approval  of   their  ol)jections,  but  rather 


O.V  EMIGRATION.  19 

upon  tlie  fact  that  we  are  sufficiently  occupied  for  tlie  mo- 
ment in  vindicating  the  right  of  Republican  government, 
and  disposing  permanently  of  a  domestic  embarrassment, 
and  upon  the  conviction  that,  with  the  near  prospect  of 
the  restoration  of  our  ISTational  quiet,  with  tenfold  of  our 
former  N^ational  power,  it  will  be  more  convenient  to  post- 
pone for  a  brief  season  the  discussion  and  settlement  of 
foreign  questions,  however  interesting  or  important. 
New  York,  May  12,  1864. 

Geo.  Cabot  Ward, 
John  Jay, 
w.  h,  osborn, 
Horatio  Allen, 
j.  g.  holbrook, 
Sherman  J.  Bacon, 


UNION  LEAGUE  CLUB  OF  NEW  YORK. 


OFFICERS    FOR    1864:. 


JONATHAN    STURGIS, 


MURRAY  HOFFMAN, 
CHARLES  KING, 
JOHN  C.  GREEN, 
MOSES  TAYLOR, 
JOHN  A.  DIX, 
HENRY  W.  BELLOWS, 


Uite-lvcbiacnt^, 


FRANCLS  B.  CUTTING, 
WILLARD  PARKER, 
ALEXANDER  T.  STEWART, 
JAMES  W.  BEEKMAN, 
GEORGE  BANCROFT, 
DAVID  HOADLEY. 


OTIS    D.     SWAN. 
WILLIAM    J.     HOPPIN. 


^xtmiiu  €mnmxiUt. 


GEORGE  GRISWOLD, 
GEORGE  CABOT  WARP, 
FRANKLIN  H.  DELANO, 
JAMES  BOORMAN  JOHNSTON, 
HENRY  L.  PIERSON, 
FRANK  E.  HOWE, 
GEORGE  W.  BLUNT, 


ROBERT  LENOX  KENNEDY, 
WILLIAM  E.  DODGE,  Jdn., 
JOHN  A.  WEEKS, 
JOHN  JAY, 
HENRY  E.  CLARK, 
DAVID  VAN   NOSTRAND, 
THEODORE  ROOSEVELT, 


RICHARD  M.  HUNT, 
THE  SECRETARY  AND  TREASURER,  Ex  Orncio. 


OFFICERS. 


(d'ommittcf  on  ^(bni5.':;ion.-p. 


N.  PENDLETON  HOSACK, 
CORNELIUS  Jl.  AGNEW, 
THOMAS  n.  FAILE, 


SlIEPPARD  CANDY, 
DUDLEY  B.  FULLER, 
WOLCOTT  GIBCS, 


GEORGE  T.   STRONG, 
THE  SECRETARY  AND  TREASURER,  Ex  Officio. 


8E0RGE  GRISWOLD,  |  FRANKLIN  H.  DELANO, 

JOHN  A,  WEEKS. 


Knvitatiou  dTommiHce, 


FRANK  E.  HOWE,  |  GEORGE  W.  BLUNT, 

DAVID  VAN   NOSTRAND. 


ibvavM  <l''on\m\ttfc. 


SAMUEL  OSGOOD,  D.  D.,  |  VICENZO  BOTTA, 

ALBERT  MATTHEWS. 


1 


